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There are three ways to clean the air in your home. You can remodel with green paints and wall coverings, use Aprilaire home air systems, or do both. The best thing that you can do to protect the health of your family is to do both.

Green paints and wall coverings

There are many different types of wall coverings that can be called green. Here are the five best that you can use:

• Non/low VOC paints. These paints have nearly eliminated the harmful chemicals that older paints leach into the air that you breathe.

• Milk paints. These are eco friendly paints that are made with skim or buttermilk as a base. It may sound crazy, but these paints have no chemicals in their base.

• Eco friendly wall plaster . This is another popular wall covering. These plasters can be purchased in several textures to help bring out the little nuances in your homes’ interior.

• Wall Tiling. You can buy glass, ceramic, or cork. These different types of tiling can beautify, dampen sound, and lower you environmental impact at the same time.

• Bamboo. Yea, bamboo. An alternative to wallpaper, bamboo wall flats make use of the fastest growing grass you can think of. On top of being easily regrown, it dampens outside noises and is all natural, so no chemicals to get into your homes’ air.

Aprilaire

Aprilaire is a total home air cleaning system. You can control temperature, humidity, and many other things with an Aprilaire system. Cleaner air means fewer asthma attacks and colds in the house each year. A new air system can pay for itself in less than five years with energy savings and the money saved on doctor visits alone. New tax credits are a helpful incentive, too.

It has been proven that some of the dirtiest air in the world is the air in your house. Knowing that, protecting your family from that polluted air becomes a top priority. When you remodel use green paints and wall covering and then let Aprilaire help you finish up cleaning the air in your home.

A large home theater installation is one that has several shelves full of equipment that is in a cabinet larger than 50 cubic feet. These setups can use thousands of watts while in operation and can dissipate hundreds of watts on standby. The amount of heat generated by these systems is too much to simply allow to move into the theater area of your home. It has to be diverted to somewhere. Active Thermal Management has a solution for every home theater problem that you can imagine.

Depending on the home theater location that somewhere could be outdoors or an unfinished basement, crawl space, or an attic. As important as removing hot air is getting cool air into the space. There are three important things to understand are:

• For every cubic foot of hot air removed a cubic foot of cool air has to enter.

• The more easily air moves in the less fan and air noise you will hear.

• In every case ventilation is most easily gotten by bringing cool air in low and letting heat out at the highest point.

The solutions to those three problems are pretty easily solved by making sure that :

• Cooling devices are located away from the enclosure.

• Turn slowly.

• Are controlled by a thermostat within the enclosure.

Active Thermal Management components solve all of these problems. The components that Active Thermal Management offers can cool your cabinet or closet, which ever you have dedicated to your home theater equipment. Remember, it’s not cool to run hot.

Do you have a second bathroom without a shower or bath in it? Adding a shower can greatly increase your home’s value. If you have an existing shower that has a hole or leak, you may be considering buying a replacement. When you do, make sure you’re consider the options.

Essentially, there are two, potentially three options, for installing a new shower to your home: prefabricated showers, tile showers, or having a hybrid shower with a fiberglass or acrylic floor but with tiled walls.

Prefabricated showers, or prefab, are either fiberglass or acrylic and come in a variety of colors and styles. If you choose this kind of shower, make sure it will fit through the doorways and hallways of your home. Many prefabs come in multiple pieces for this reason. Naturally, prefab units are easier to install if you intend to do it yourself. They are also often cheaper than buying a bunch of tiles.

However, since it’s prefabricated, you’ll need to measure both the shower and the area you intend to install it into. One of their disadvantages are that if a prefab shower ends up with a hole, crack, or leak, a spot treatment may not be very aesthetically pleasing (since caulk only comes in a few colors) and you will eventually need to replace the stall anyway. However, because of their nature, shifts in the floor generally will not affect the shower itself, and will generally not cause a leak.

Tiled showers are very difficult to install on your own, and may require you to find a contractor or do a great deal of research if you intend to do it yourself. Improperly laid tile can create various leaks and may shift over time. However, tiled showers are ultimately easier to repair if they have one or two leaks because repairs will generally only need to be done by replacing a few tiles. If you want to create an irregularly shaped stall or if the area is not a standard size, tiled showers are definitely the best option. Tiles are generally costlier than prefab showers, but do contribute to a slightly higher resale value of your home in the long run since they are considered more luxurious.

Despite these advantages and the fact that there are many more options in terms of color, style, and size for shower tiles, there are still disadvantages to consider. One is that if the house or floor shifts, a tiled shower can quickly turn into an expensive renovating project. They are also slower to install since more preparation is involved and each piece will be laid individually.

Because of these disadvantages, some homeowners choose a third option, which is using a prefabricated floor pan, but creating tiled walls. If the house or floor shifts, the pan generally will not need replaced. And ultimately, if a tile or two gets stained or the floor pan begins to leak, you won’t spend quite as much since the entire shower won’t need replaced.

From these three options, it should be fairly easy to determine which is best for you based on your type of home, the style of the bathroom, and your budget.

Many people are going green in all of the things that they do in their remodeling projects. Green floor coverings, green paints, etc. Shouldn’t we all be worried about the quality of the indoor air that we breathe?

The EPA in the United States has done numerous studies that have all shown that indoor air is more polluted than some large urban areas. That pollution comes from many sources. Using environmentally friendly paints and adhesives will lower the amount of pollutants in your home’s air, but is that enough?

How do you remove the pollutants that are already there? You can’t just open a window and hope they fly out. Cleaning your air is where an environmentally friendly company like Aprilaire comes into play. They have all of the products that you need to circulate, dehumidify, and clean the air in your home.

Few things are as important then the air that you family breathes on a daily basis. The only solution to environmental pollution in your home is a whole house approach. Aprilaire considered that when they created all of their indoor air quality products. Aprilaire products provide complete control over temperature, humidity, can cleaner, fresher air throughout your home. This is done with energy efficiency as a top priority.

Aprilaire products will help to pay for themselves in energy savings and fewer doctor visits. That doesn’t even take into account the piece of mind that you will get from knowing that your home’s air filtered and clean. Clean air reduces your childrens’ chances of developing asthma and, if your child already has asthma, lowers the number of attacks that they may suffer each year.

Aprilaire is a green, energy efficient product that will help to protect your family. That is all that you can ask for from a product.

This is a serious issue for many people, and in this time of recession and fiscal drain it is becoming even more more important to consider it carefully. When deciding between a home owner remodeling project or hiring a licensed contractor to do it for you there are many things to consider. These include your time frame, the skill level of those involved, cost and possible cost overruns, permitting and inspections, and so forth. Not a single one of these items is more important or weighed more heavily than another. As this is the case, a decision can be a very difficult one to come to.

When considering your time frame look first at when you would need to have the project completed by. Then consider your own professional and personal schedule. Can you really handle the time needed in order to ensure your project stays on track? If not, perhaps recruiting helpers may work or maybe hiring out would work best for you. The time required for any job is not small nor is it convenient, make sure before taking the project, on that you have alloted yourself ample time to achieve the task you have set yourself to, without over taxing yourself.

Along with stretching you time, you must also take into consideration your skill level and the level of those who will be working with you. Challenge is good and pushes you to learn new techniques as well as skills. But be mindful not to over reach your skill level. By reaching to far and pushing to hard, the end product could be more expensive and of lesser quality than you would have preferred. Books and home centers are wonderful resources for the do it your selfer who is attempting something a little new or difficult for them. Don’t hesitate to utilize all the resources available to you. If you are uncomfortable with the size of the project, perhaps consider doing parts of it and hiring out those areas you are as yet, unable to take on yourself. This will provide you an opportunity of learning from others while you too, are working.

Permits and inspections can be difficult for anyone no matter their skill level or experience. If your project is small enough that no permit is required, congratulations. If on the other hand, plans and permits are required and you are going to be doing the work your self, plan on extra time. About thirty percent of the project time will include working with inspectors and planners during normal business hours. Keep in mind that you will be spending chunks of time with them, so try and remain patient. If this is something needed for your project, but you are simply unwilling or unable to deal with, perhaps it’s time to bring in a professional contractor.

Any remodeling project can be intrusive. In order to reduce the impact projects have on our lives, it is best to carefully consider the pros and cons of hiring out versus doing the work ourselves. Remember that the least stressful and most satisfying way to take on any project, is to go into it well informed and confident. So take the time to evaluate your needs and expectations before you start in. You’ll be glad you did.

Around the time our kitchen starts to feel a little flat we begin planning our next remodeling project. Unfortunately many of us tend to stop at the planning and dreaming stage when we realize that we are looking at an amount of money that not only were we not expecting, but we just don’t have lying around somewhere. Just because the funds, time, or perhaps the skills are not there, does not mean that our kitchen can’t benefit from a little face lift of minimum cost.

The most cost effective way of sprucing up a run down kitchen is to replace hardware. This means cool little door knobs, towel rings, drawer pulls and sometimes door hinges. You know, the little embellishments that make a room sparkle just a little bit. Knobs and pulls are so varied that any personality can be reflected.

Take your old hardware off and wipe clean you cabinet doors to make them shine. When you install your new hardware, your kitchen will have a distinctly new feel to it and look refreshed. Towel rings are not a bad idea either. Install towel rings by your sink, and perhaps hooks by your stove. This way you will be sure to have a rag, towel or potholder readily available whenever you may need. The functionality of such items are matched well with a designer flair, and look great.

Paint is also a good way of livening up a space. Kitchens in particular suffer the hardest and most frequent use of any room in the house. Those spaghetti stains over the stove are not pretty and the scuffs on the walls that don’t wipe off cast a dingy light on the whole room. Brighten up your kitchen with a new color. Be bold with your choice too. You have chosen such lovely hardware to embellish the cabinets, now let’s make them pop.

Light blues and greens bring the outdoors in. You feel a part of the sky and spring in light green or blue rooms. Mellow yellows and golds add cheer and humor to a room. Purples and pinks can enliven your kitchen to compliment good moods and the colors feel pleasant and comfortable. Play around with your ideas. Sample swatches and samples of paint can be purchased to see how they look in the actual setting. So don’t worry if you’re not well versed in the latest Pantone color schemes. Find what make you happy and pleases your eye, then fit it in with your room. You may be surprised with how creative you can really be, and make you kitchen look newly redone, without having to redo it.

Okay, so you just spent months planning, designing and building your new addition. Or maybe you remodeled your kitchen/ living room/ bedroom or bathroom. But it still isn’t quite….you. The paint color is great, the layout is spectacular but it’s just still not there. What do you do about it? Perhaps it’s time to consider alternate wall finishes. Wall finishes refer to more than just paint color. What we’re talking about here is texture, coverings, wainscotings, venetian plasters. Etc. etc. etc.

Faux finishing a wall is one way to add some life and individuality to a room. With a faux finish, your wall could resemble quarried marble, water or sky. It’s all a matter of your taste and the direction you want to go with it. A faux finished wall can be done by the homeowner or by a skilled finishing expert.

If your tastes lean more toward an industrial look, be bold and install a wainscoting of diamond plate metal along the bottom portion of the walls in your game room. This kind of wall finish protects the walls from pool cues, swinging feet and balls. Metal wainscoting coupled with chilly colors like grays, blues and purples make quite an impression on visitors.

An opportunity for accent that is often over looked in remodeling projects is wall texture. Think all walls are smooth or splatter? Go look again. You can create your own textures with a medium bristle brush and a little imagination. Imprinting patterns in a fresh coat of drywall mud can result in a surprising burst of artistic creativity. One of a kind and seldom used texture patterns can take your room further than a simple paint color.

Wall coverings are another way of impressing a certain feel in a room, and we have come a long way from the fruit print wall paper in grandma’s kitchen. Grass cloth, for instance brings nature to your living room in a comfortable way that does not antagonize your guests allergies. Natural impression wall coverings like grass cloth are effective in making a smaller room feel larger when used properly. So they are a great resource for those who are restricted on space and must refrain from knick knack embellishments.

These are only a small representation of the possibilities of wall finishes that are available to us now. Each offering a new and unique way of expressing ourselves and of turning a room into a personal representation in space. Consider decorative painting, wood, or tile for your walls. Even fabrics when used in small amounts can have a great impact on a room. By letting go of our fear of anything but white and off white paint we will be able to make our homes expressive and comfortable, suiting to our personalities and inviting to others.

ButtKicker® audio transducers are some of the most powerful transducers on the market today. These musically accurate, patented linear transducers are virtually indestructible. They are used to recreate audio signals in the feeling range to help complement the auditory sensations you normally get by with.

In order to truly perceive the full range of sound you have to use two senses. You can hear sound, but you also feel sound in the lower frequencies. Usually you feel bass when it is really being pumped or you feel the sound coming from the large speakers at a concert. ButtKicker® changes that and allows you to feel sound in your own home.

What ButtKicker® does is reproduces the feeling range of sound through your chair or couch. You can even use headphones and still get the feeling of sound. A magnetically suspended piston moves to a audio input. The 3.25lb mass generates a large amount of force that is transferred by vibration into whatever the housing is attached to.

ButtKicker® is the perfect accessory for your home theater system. Surround sound is great, but being able to feel the sound at lower volumes is even better. This is the way that the professionals who design new rides at theme parks or build music studios allow for a better interactive experience for everyone who uses their facilities. Why not use the same stuff that the professionals use? This is one way to get one up on the neighbor who tries to have everything that you do. He’ll know the sound quality is better at your house, but will not be able to put his finger on why.

ButtKicker® are linear transducers that allow you to feel the vibrations of low frequency sound waves while listening to the higher frequencies for a more complete audio experience. This is done by converting the low frequency sound into true vibrations that you can feel in anything that you attach a Butt Kicker to.

You can not fully perceive sound with just your ears. You have to add your sense of feeling. Normally, the only way to do this is to crank up the bass or go to a concert where the huge speakers move enough air for you to feel the sound. Feeling the music is part of a good concert.

Butt Kicker linear transducers reproduce the feeling range of sound without using air movement. They allow you to feel powerful bass without excessive volume. Unlike voice coil shakers and other tactile devices, these transducers are long lasting, and musically accurate. To do all of these things ButtKicker® uses a magnetically suspended piston that moves precisely in response to its amplified audio input. The 3.25 lb piston then generates a tremendous force that can be felt in whatever it is attached to. These transducers work so well that they are used by IMAX, Disney, and Universal Studios. If they work well enough for an IMAX theater, why not use them as part of your home theater?

ButtKicker is great for music recording studios. It gives the musician control over their mix without sacrificing quality. Mixes come out tighter, cleaner, and better balanced.

The use of linear transducers in your home theater only makes sense if you want crisp, clean sound in the hearing and feeling ranges. Why waste your money if you are satisfied with half the audio production that your systems is capable of? If you are not satisfied with sloppy, half way sound then ButtKicker is the way to go for you. Install your transducers and have your friends over. Watch their reactions as they get their butts kicked!

The bathroom is one of the most dangerous rooms in the home. Surfaces can become slick with water and soap, including the floor. There is generally not much room for maneuvering, and there are plenty hazards to trip over. Combined with sharp-edged shelves and unprotected glass mirrors, the bathroom can turn into a pretty dangerous place!

Remodeling is the perfect time to choose a flooring surface that is specifically designed to be an anti-slip surface. If this isn’t in your budget, you could purchase a few anti-slip mats or strips for areas in front of the sink, in front of the shower, or even in the shower to reduce the likelihood of falls.

Grab bars can be installed in walls with strong studs or even inside showers to assist young children and older adults with getting in and out safely. If you are removing or adding walls while remodeling, don’t neglect the addition sturdy boards on which bathroom fixtures can be attached. And installing a shower with an interior seat may assist your older guests when bathing.

If installing a new bath or shower, choose one with a low threshold that is wheelchair accessible or easily stepped over by less agile visitors to your bathroom. Picking a toilet that is taller instead of one of the older, shorter models will also reduce the likelihood of slips and falls.

Lowering the temperature on your hot water heater or using anti-scald faucets can prevent severe burns caused by scalding water. Pressure-balance valves can also be installed to limit temperature fluctuations in water temperature when someone else in the house is using water from another source.

And, as mentioned in a previous post, be careful when using appliances such as curling irons or blow dryers! Make sure you have at least one ground-fault circuit interrupter outlet installed in the bathroom. GFCI outlets will shut off when danger seems to be present.

Can you think of other ways to improve the safety of your bathroom? Leave us a comment below!